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Tag Archives: baby

Now that I am having fun with my new tablet, and I have upgraded to Photoshop CC (previously using elements), I can have a little more control and fun with the monthly pictures of R. Take this month’s picture for example. I was not able to get her to lay on the quilt for the life of me, so I decided to turn the quilt into a backdrop by draping part of it over a table.

As you can see, the table wasn’t quite big enough to backdrop the entire view. (I have already done my basic color tweaks to brighten this picture). So, I decided to try a background clone stamp to see if I could cover those holes, and I think I did pretty alright.

The left side came out better than the right, with the quilting stitching being closer to matching, but I think it is ok for a first effort. This month I wanted to do a pink circle for the month, but I was having trouble getting it to multiply onto the onesie without any blue reflections coming through and making parts of it look purple. So, after an hour of fiddling with it, I decided to just leave it like this and call it done. Not my best effort, but I was getting hangry and frustrated.

I don't even know what to say about being back to work. I am both happy and sad about it. Happy that I am getting things done, getting a paycheck, and having adult interaction. Sad that I am missing R, not getting things done at home, and disconnected from the happenings in the office. I have to assume that every working mom feels similarly to some degree.

The biggest challenge to going back to work is R not taking a bottle. She refused every time we tried the month before going back to work, and now she is refusing at daycare. This means that she is not eating all day long; she is just waiting for me to get home. It is stressing me out. She is already quite stubborn and opinionated in her own quiet way (L is stubborn and opinionated in a much more vocal way).

So, today J is taking R to the pediatrician to get her weight checked. Since she is not eating all day, we need to make sure she is gaining weight at a proper rate still. I do not think I would be as worried if she was reverse cycling and eating more at night, but she is still sleeping good at night. I can't believe that she would be getting all of her needed calories from just eating in the evenings and morning. Well, I guess we will see what the doctor says.

Fingers crossed that she will take a bottle soon. Silver lining: I can freeze all the milk I am pumping during the day (a whopping 7 oz total per day) to use in the future.

Recently we decided to be crazy brave and go camping over the weekend with the kids. We have taken Liam camping before, just after he turned 1, and it was great. We were gone for a week and there was lots of family around to give us a hand with him. This time, we went camping for a weekend with an almost 3 year old and a 2 month old. Yikes! Luckily, we happened to go with people that had older kids and they gave us a ton of help with watching Liam. After this most recent camping experience, I have a few tips to make camping with little ones a little less stressful. We actually ended up over-packing quite a bit, but I know that if we had left anything out that would be when we needed it.

Bring lots of wipes and then pack even more. We went through a ton of baby wipes because both kids pooped a ton while camping (of course). We also used them to clean L's face/hands/feet/arms throughout the day and on our own faces/hands. They are also nice to use to give your feet a quick wipe-down before bed to keep the sheets clean.

Bring toys for the dirt. We brought L's construction vehicles and they were a big hit. They kept him occupied for hours during the trip! I think we all would have gone a little insane if we didn't have those toys to keep him occupied while in camp.

Plan on the kids being dirty all the time.

You have a little something on your face…

Every time we tried to clean L's hands up before a meal, he would walk away and start playing in the dirt. Eventually, we decided to just let him eat with dirt under his fingernails. Unless you are staying in a cabin (also known as not really camping), dirt is going to be everywhere no matter what you do. Might as well just give in early and enjoy it.

Citronella candles. R is to young for bug spray, so the only way to keep her from being eaten by the mosquitos was to hang out near a citronella candle. It worked great because she didn't get any bug bites… J and I won that lottery.

Make sure there is a good adult to kid ratio. 2 adults to every 1 child is a minimum to have a good time. This ratio allows time for everyone to relax and sit around the campfire at some point while someone else is chasing the children. If there are more kids than adults, the camp will quickly be overrun. In a pinch, older kids can substitute as adults for the purpose of distracting the younger ones.

Pack 2 complete outfits for each day. We did not end up using all of the clothes we packed for R, but L went through almost all of his (see #3). Kid clothes don't take up a ton of space, so squish a couple extra onesies or t-shirts in where you can.

Just watching the trees

You would think that camping with a baby was difficult, but it was the preschooler that was giving us heart palpitations constantly. The baby just wanted to be held, her food was mobile and available with minimal fuss, and she only woke up once a night and went right back to sleep after eating. The preschooler was fighting bedtime, refused to nap, picky about his food, and did not understand the concept of "in or out" when it came to the tent. All in all, just being a normal, exhausting, little boy.

Even with how tiring it was, we had a great time. L loves being outside (he gets that from J) and the lack of TV just blew his mind. R enjoyed sitting with me and just staring at the shadows made by the wind moving the trees. I hope that we can go again later this summer or fall before it gets too cold for the kids.

One day after her one month birthday, we got our first social smile from R. She woke up one morning at about 6 am and just gave me the biggest gummy smile. My heart just melted. Since then, her smiles have been fairly rare, but I could usually get a couple in the early morning. Today, she was nice enough to smile for me while J had his phone ready to snap a couple of pictures. Official proof that we have a smiling baby! Now if we could just get her to roll over again…

Even though I already talked about R being 6 weeks old, I wanted to share my weekly/monthly/whenever-I-can picture of her. I am following the style of Young House Love and taking a pic of R in a white onesie and photshopping her age on it. Instead of using fun fabric, I am using quilts that my grandma has made for us. I can't wait to see all the funny expressions and poses she does for the future pictures!

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I am a biologist, wife and mother of two little minions. I like to read, play video games, take photos, drink wine, and write about all of my favorite things, including my children and the challenges of being a working mom. Welcome to my little corner of the internet!